The White House said Wednesday that Trump “holds Syria and Russian Federation responsible for this chemical weapons attack”.

Regarding US claims on Russian Federation and Iran’s support for Syria in this case he said “we have already warned that the United States intends to make such allegations, exactly like what happened in eastern Ghouta”.

If the United States action follows the pattern of a previous punitive strike on Syria a year ago, it will begin with a salvo of cruise missiles fired from American warships in the Mediterranean, as Trump implied when he tweeted they would be “nice, new and ‘smart'”.

Mattis, however, indicated on Wednesday that evidence of what happened was still being studied.

Trump has consulted with U.S. allies, particularly France and the United Kingdom, about a coordinated response to the suspected chemical attack, but officials say they have not reached a firm agreement on scale or timing. “We’re still working on this”.

Trump cancelled a planned trip to South America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident.

Secretary of Defence James Mattis and President Donald Trump are discussing military options to conduct air strikes on Syria.

Trump is reportedly considering options, including the “missiles” he hinted at on Wednesday. “This line exists and it’s in an active state, ‘ spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the line meant to prevent accidental clashes ‘is used by both sides”. We are totally predictable. Trump himself appeared to place blame on the Assad regime, tweeting shortly after the attack that the Syrian president was behind “another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever”.

Any potential strike against Syria could be carried out by extensive US and United Kingdom military assets already in the region, including two US Navy destroyers armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

U.S. officials have consulted with global allies on a possible joint military response to the incident.

The US President added that the US relationship with Russian Federation “is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War”. Deconfliction lines between the USA and Russian Federation help.

The Foreign Ministry in Damascus has denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to attack the country as “reckless” and a danger to global peace and security. Trump has largely avoided criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, though he singled him out in a tweet over the weekend for supporting Assad. But now that Assad’s forces are dominant, Kupchan says, Russian has little influence over Assad, who brings negative attention to the alliance through his attacks on civilians, including with chemical weapons.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called for a “strong and joint response” to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday.

Amid the talk of military action, the Kremlin, a close ally of Assad, countered that more “serious approaches” were needed to combat the crisis.

As president-elect, Trump held that line, telling supporters his administration would “stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with”.